Yeah buddy, why have such high expectations for television? I mean it's not like a mini-series has ever influenced policy or confronted the American public in any meaningful way or changed their values or exposed taboo subjects, well besides *The Day After, *Roots, *Rich Man Poor Man, *Captains and the Kings, and *The Band Played On.
But bro, those are just flukes, why be harshing on the status quo when you can give them controversial material in slushy form? Oh man, I forget to mention The Wire, to.
Dude, but like just think about this instead, time is a flat circle. I know, killer, huh?
*The Day Afterhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After
The Day After is a 1983 American television film that aired on November 20, 1983, on the ABC television network. It was seen by more than 100 million people during its initial broadcast.[1] The film postulates a fictional war between NATO forces and the Warsaw Pact that rapidly escalates into a full-scale nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, the action itself focuses on the residents of Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri, as well as several family farms situated next to nuclear missile silos.
Reaction
On its original broadcast (Sunday, November 20, 1983), ABC and local TV affiliates opened 1-800 hotlines with counselors standing by. There were no commercial breaks after the nuclear attack. ABC then aired a live debate, hosted by Nightline's Ted Koppel, featuring the scientist Carl Sagan, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Elie Wiesel, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, General Brent Scowcroft and conservative commentator William F. Buckley, Jr.. Sagan argued against nuclear proliferation, while Buckley promoted the concept of nuclear deterrence. Sagan described the arms race in the following terms: "Imagine a room awash in gasoline, and there are two implacable enemies in that room. One of them has nine thousand matches, the other seven thousand matches. Each of them is concerned about who's ahead, who's stronger."
One psychotherapist counseled viewers at Shawnee Mission East High School in the Kansas City suburbs, and 1,000 others held candles at a peace vigil in Penn Valley Park. A discussion group called Let Lawrence Live was formed by the English Department at the university and dozens from the Humanities Department gathered on the campus in front of the Memorial Campanile and lit candles in a peace vigil. At Baker University, a private school in Baldwin City, Kansas, roughly 10 miles south of Lawrence, a number of students drove around the city, looking at sites depicted in the film as having been destroyed.
Children's entertainer Mr. Rogers also dedicated five episodes of his television program (entitled the "Conflict" series) to comfort and talk to young children who had seen the movie on television.Critics tended to claim the film was either sensationalizing nuclear war or that it was too tame.[4] The special effects and realistic portrayal of nuclear war received praise. The film received twelve Emmy nominations and won two Emmy awards. It is the only film that has ever received the rating "way above average" in Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide.
Nearly 100 million Americans watched The Day After on its first broadcast, a record audience for a made-for-TV movie. Producers Sales Organization released the film theatrically around the world, in the Eastern Bloc, China, North Korea and Cuba (this international version contained six minutes of footage not in the telecast edition). Since commercials are not sold in these markets, Producers Sales Organization lost an undisclosed sum of money. Years later this international version was released to tape by Embassy Home Entertainment (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer now holds the video rights in the US).
Commentator Ben Stein, critical of the movie's message (i.e. that the strategy of Mutual Assured Destruction would lead to a war), wrote in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner what life might be like in an America under Soviet occupation. Stein's idea was eventually dramatized in the miniseries Amerika, also broadcast by ABC.
The New York Post accused Meyer of being a traitor, writing, "Why is Nicholas Meyer doing Yuri Andropov's work for him?"[5] Phyllis Schlafly declared that "This film was made by people who want to disarm the country, and who are willing to make a $7 million contribution to that cause".[5] Much press comment focused on the unanswered question in the film of who started the war.[5]
Effects on policymakers
President Ronald Reagan watched the film several days before its screening, on November 5, 1983.[5] He wrote in his diary that the film was "very effective and left me greatly depressed,"[5] and that it changed his mind on the prevailing policy on a "nuclear war".[6] The film was also screened for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A government advisor who attended the screening, a friend of Meyer's, told him "If you wanted to draw blood, you did it. Those guys sat there like they were turned to stone."[5] Four years later, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty was signed and in Reagan's memoirs he drew a direct line from the film to the signing.[5] Reagan later sent Meyer a telegram after the summit, saying, "Don't think your movie didn't have any part of this, because it did."[2] In a 2010 interview, Meyer said that this was a myth, and that the sentiment stemmed from a friend's letter to Meyer; he suggested the story had origins in editing notes received from the White House during the production, which "...may have been a joke, but it wouldn't surprise me, him being an old Hollywood guy."[5]
The film also had impact outside the U.S. In 1987, during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika reforms, the film was shown on Soviet television. Four years earlier, Georgia Rep. Elliott Levitas and 91 co-sponsors introduced a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives "[expressing] the sense of the Congress that the American Broadcasting Company, the Department of State, and the U.S. Information Agency should work to have the television movie The Day After aired to the Soviet public."[7]
RootsRoots is a television miniseries in the USA based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel, entitled Roots: The Saga of an American Family; the series first aired, on ABC-TV, in 1977. Roots received 37 Emmy Award nominations and won nine. It won also a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award.[1] It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings for the finale, which still holds a record as the third-highest-rated US television program.[2][3] It was produced on a budget of $6.6 million.[4][5] Ratings and viewers
The miniseries was watched by an estimated 130[14][15][16] and 140[17][18] million viewers total and averaged a 44.9 rating[17] 66% share[17] of the audience. The final episode was watched by 100 million viewers and an average of 80 million viewers watched each of the last seven episodes.[6] Eighty-five percent of all television homes saw all or part of the mini-series.[6] All episodes rank within the top 100 rated TV shows of all time.[19]
http://www.pbs.org/black-culture/shows/ ... n-america/The iconic miniseries Roots became the most watched TV series in US history when it was first aired in 1977. It candidly revealed a side of slavery that we never saw on national TV before.
*Rich Man Poor Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Man,_ ... iseries%29Rich Man, Poor Man is a 1976 American television miniseries that aired on ABC in one or two hour episodes mostly on Monday nights over seven weeks, beginning February 1. It was produced by Universal Television and was the second time programming of this nature had been attempted. The first TV miniseries, QB VII, had aired — also on ABC — in 1974. These projects proved to be a critical and ratings success and were the forerunner for similar projects based on literary works, such as Roots. The film stars Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte and Susan Blakely.
Based on the best-selling 1970 novel by Irwin Shaw, it spanned the period from 1945 through the late 1960s and followed the divergent career courses of the impoverished German immigrant Jordache brothers. Rudy (Peter Strauss) was the rich man of the title, a well-educated and very ambitious entrepreneur who triumphed over his background and constructed a corporate and political empire. Poor man Tom (Nick Nolte) was a rebel who eventually turned to boxing to support himself. Axel and Mary were their parents, and Julie Prescott was Rudy's lifelong sweetheart who eventually married him.
*Captains and the Kings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captains_and_the_KingsCaptains and the Kings is a 1972 historical novel by Taylor Caldwell chronicling the rise to wealth and power of an Irish immigrant, Joseph Francis Xavier Armagh, who arrives penniless as a teenager in the United States. An inter-generational saga focusing on the themes of the American dream, discrimination and bigotry in American life, and of history as made by a cabal of the rich and powerful, it was one of the top 10 best-sellers of 1972, as ranked by The New York Times Best Seller list. Caldwell drew heavily on aspects of the Kennedy family, John D. Rockefeller and Howard Hughes.
The book was adapted into an eight-part television miniseries by NBC in the 1976 broadcast season, starring Richard Jordan, Charles Durning, Blair Brown, David Huffman, Patty Duke and a star-laden supporting cast. Duke won an Emmy Award for her performance. Jordan won a Golden Globe award and an Emmy nomination for his performance. Durning was nominated for both an Emmy and a Golden Globe. Beverly D'Angelo made her debut. Cinematographer Ric Waite won his only Emmy Award for his work on the miniseries.[1]
*And the Band Played On
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_the_Ba ... %28film%29And the Band Played On is a 1993 American television film docudrama directed by Roger Spottiswoode. The teleplay by Arnold Schulman is based on the best-selling 1987 non-fiction book And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts.
Plot: In a prologue set in 1976, American epidemiologist Don Francis arrives in a village on the banks of the Ebola River in Zaire and discovers many of the residents and the doctor working with them have died from a mysterious illness later identified as Ebola hemorrhagic fever. It is his first exposure to such an epidemic, and the images of the dead he helps cremate will haunt him when he later becomes involved with HIV and AIDS research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 1981, Francis becomes aware of a growing number of deaths from unexplained sources among gay men in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco, and is prompted to begin an in-depth investigation of the possible causes. Working with no money, limited space, and outdated equipment, he comes in contact with politicians, numerous members of the medical community (many of whom resent his involvement because of their personal agendas), and gay activists. Of the latter, some such as Bill Kraus support him, while others express resentment at what they see as unwanted interference in their lifestyles, especially in his attempts to close the local bathhouses. While Francis pursues his theory that AIDS is caused by a sexually transmitted virus on the model of feline leukemia, he finds his efforts are stonewalled by the CDC, which is loath to prove the disease is transmitted through blood, and competing French and American scientists, particularly Dr. Robert Gallo. These medical researchers squabble about who should receive credit for discovering the virus. Meanwhile, the death toll climbs rapidly.
Most reviewers agreed that the filmmakers had a daunting task in adapting Shilts' massive, fact-filled text into a dramatically coherent film. Many critics praised the results. Film review website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 100% "Fresh" rating based on eight reviews.[1]
In his review in Variety, Tony Scott said, "If there are lapses, director Spottiswoode's engrossing, powerful work still accomplishes its mission: Shilts' book, with all its shock, sorrow and anger, has been transferred decisively to the screen."[2] John O'Connor of The New York Times agreed that the adaptation "adds up to tough and uncommonly courageous television. Excessive tinkering has left the pacing of the film sluggish in spots, but the story is never less than compelling."[3] And Time magazine said that "Shilts' prodigiously researched 600-page book has been boiled down to a fact-filled, dramatically coherent, occasionally moving 2 hours and 20 minutes. At a time when most made-for-TV movies have gone tabloid crazy, here is a rare one that tackles a big subject, raises the right issues, fights the good fight."[4]Produced despite heavy misgivings in the film industry. When film star Richard Gere accepted a small role, he broke the taboos - at grave risk to his career - about both the subject and major film stars taking small parts in TV productions. Subsequently Steve Martin, Alan Alda, Phil Collins and Anjelica Huston were willing to appear.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106273/tri ... tt_trv_trv
